Williamson County Historical Commission
contact Wayne Ware (512)
863-2202
When Trains Were Important
Narratives from the
Georgetown's Yesteryears Book
A special thanks
to The Georgetown Heritage Society and Martha Mitten Allen for letting
the Commission post these wonderful first person stories.
see Foreword
and Preface
"The Katy Railroad"
Berna Sillure Cooke - Interviewer: Rodney K. Kaase
About 1900 the Missouri, Kansas and Texas
Railroad, nicknamed "The Katy" came from St. Louis, Missouri on south
through Dallas to Granger. One section went on to Houston and the other
section came by Georgetown, and into Austin and on to San Antonio. That
was our way of transportation, really, until the automobiles began to
come in. There were quite a few trains every day. One Christmas morning,
a friend of mine in Austin was marrying. I went down on the train the
afternoon before, from Georgetown to Austin, and spent the night with
her for I was to be her Maid of Honor. The wedding was at noon the next
day, and I caught the 1:00 o'clock train that was coming to Georgetown,
and came on in here and finished Christmas day with my family.
This same time, 1918-19, about the same age I was when I went to the
wedding, we would have a date and go down to Austin for dinner and a
picture show. There was a train that came through along about five in
the afternoon, and we'd go down then, in time to have our dinner and a
show, then we'd catch the 12:00 o'clock train that came back through
from San Antonio. It was only about a thirty-five or forty minute trip
then. It was very convenient. The station in Georgetown was on the MKT
track beyond the University, between 7th and 8th streets. It was a long
building with a waiting room, a good-sized baggage room, and a freight
office at the other end of the building.
When World War I came up, there were trains carrying the soldiers. We
would get word of when the troop trains were coming through and we could
hear the whistle outside of town and we'd get over there as fast as we
could in cars, and wave to the soldiers as they came by. And lots of
times the trains had to stop to get water.
The railroad was the principal way of getting to Dallas or San Antonio,
for our roads were not paved nor in very good condition. Besides, many
people were still without cars to use at all, or only for business
purposes. It was also a quicker way than a car, because the highways
weren't as good then.
In World War II the trains were still used a lot for the transportation
of the soldiers. My husband was working in Dallas, and he would either
come home in the car to see about the farm on the weekends or I would go
up on the train. It was so crowded at that time that I have stood in the
aisle nearly all the way from Georgetown to Dallas many times. And it
was fun, really and truly. Everybody was good natured. We had to keep
our suitcase with us, and if it was stiff enough, you could sit on that.
But everybody was laughing and making the best of it, and if the train
stopped in a hurry, we would all jostle against one another.
Southwestern students weren't supposed to but they used to walk down the
tracks and across the trestle, where the train crossed the San Gabriel
River, north of town. They would go down to the river and picnic. There
was one girl killed, caught on the trestle. You could feel the train
vibrations to know it was coming, but the trains were getting up speed
and were nearer than you thought.
STUDENTS
CAME BY RAIL
George Bryan Dawson III: Michael Seay, Interviewer
When I started to school, there were no cars. All the
students walked to school, or rode horses or drove in buggies. All
the students at Southwestern came by rail. There was three livery
stables that housed horses, and they kept teams that they would rent
buggies to anybody. And they would meet the train. When the students
came, they would unload the trunks, and they'd haul them up there on
these dray lines with horses and leave them at Southwestern.
THE JIMMYTOWN
SPECIAL
Tillman Barron: Mark Graves, Interviewer
Before [the KATY railroad
came to Georgetown] there was only one way in and out of Georgetown.
Long years ago, they built this little I. and G. N. branch on the
west side of town. They called it the Jimmy town Special. That was
the only way in and out of Georgetown and all the drummers and
passengers would come over here and depart for Round Rock where they
made connections with the main line. They'd run about four or five
trains a day, just in and out. The train would come in with two
passenger coaches and a baggage coach. Of course, back in those
days, they also hauled the freight cars on it. That was the way in
and out of Georgetown then.
TRAIN STATIONS
Tommye B. Jefferson: Mike Lade, Interviewer
To ride on the train was very interesting, didn't get
to make too many trips, but we made some. We had two. We had the IGN
and the KATY tracks, the MK and T. The MK and T was on the east side
of town and the IGN was just up the street [on the west side]. It
went south, through Round Rock and around through that way. We would
take a walk and go to the KATY station just to watch the train come
in and wave at the people. When the train would stop, they would all
get out and if it was at night, they had their lanterns and they
would run up and down the track and check everything. And in the
station we had our ticket agent, the ticket office. We had seats in
there for us to sit. If we missed the train or we were there early,
they had comfortable places. And they had the big old round
belly-like stoves, you know, that they put coal in. It was something
that we didn't have, it was interesting to us, because we didn't
have a lot of things to get involved in, or to go see, to
participate in, or whatever. So we would go over there sometime,
walk way over there from down here, way across town to visit with
the train and we'd meet some of the people that would come in or go
out.
"Shipping
Cattle on The Katy"
I. M. Hausenfluke - Interviewer: Robert Zearfoss
We shipped all of our cattle to Fort Worth by rail.
The railroad, which is the Katy, by Southwestern University, is
where we shipped all our cattle . . . . Back in the 20's there was
very little trucking. The moving of livestock was all together by
driving. When my grandma shipped her cattle, we would bring all that
cattle together; [from] all of the park land, all of the North
Gabriel to the Weir Road and there back to this road [airport road]
to the Andice Road. Before the flood she had her headquarters at the
old Glasscock house, west of where McDonald's is. [After the flood]
She moved to her new home where Southwestern Plaza is.
[Moving the cattle to the rail pens] Where the rivers run together
is where we always crossed the creek in the park. It was a real
straight up-shoot at that bank and you would hit the park road. You
would work the cattle up it. You worked them down to the first
street and then you went around the vacant land which used to be the
sewer farm to the railroad where Mr. Shell lived. The stockyards
were close to Southwestern. It was on a spur where Exxon is. Those
pens would hold 1,000 head of cattle. They had a loading chute and
would push that car up to that chute and open the side door. A
cattle car was slatted so the heat would get out. The railroad man
would seal it and put a bar across it and then they would pull up
another car. We loaded them about 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. because the
train would pick them up at 10:00 p.m. We would load about ten or
fifteen cars. Cattle cars then held about forty calves or twenty
grown cows.
also view
The Bartlett-Florence Railroad
later named
The
Bartlett-Western Railroad
Also called
“Bull Frog” and “Big Windy”
also view
by Lester Haines
Bartlett Western Railroad,
Georgetown Rail Road
And Other Early Transportation in
Williamson County, Texas